Halloween display

I go regularly to a cafe/bakery in an adjacent village where they have now put up US style Halloween decorations. Here are some of my photos thereof.

There have been some prudish objections to the one shown on the lower right. Due to the placement of the two pumpkins and the front stabilizing foot, which alledgedly look like testicles and a small penis, it is colported that local catholic housewives are blushing. What a stretch of their imagination.

What do your local Halloween decorations look like?

Copyright ^© Ole Phat Stu on October 11, 2024 permalink Comments Email

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Least useful signpost?

A couple of hundred years ago, there being no cars etc, people walked or rode horses or drove horse & carts from village to village or local market town. At each cross roads, signposts were placed so the travellers could navigate locally. In the UK for example, they looked like the one shown below.

These at least were useful and still are.

But let me show you an example of probably the most useless kind of signpost, as shown below. Seen on a motorcycle tour through the french and italian alps, this one is at N45° 40' 49" E6° 53' 2", on the peak of the lesser St.Berhard pass from France to Italy, the border is just a few yards northeast of this. There is only the one road, no crossroads, so all the traveller may need are one signpost arm pointing down to the southwest labelled France, and the other arm, pointing down and NE from the pass, labelled Italy.

It is just showing off. Only the arms labelled Moscow and Buenos Aires actually point along the only road. Signpost arms labelled San Francisco, Johannesburg, Lac Winnepeg and Sydney are useless, pointing to no road, just showing off a knowledge of geography. Yes, afaik, they are pointing in the right great circle directions, but still pretty useless! It would be more useful if they listed the distance to the next petrol pumps!

BTW, the pass restaurant in France is better than the one just across the border in Italy imho.

Comments(1)
UK blogreader Peter send this sign, not a signpost but still rather funny.
It's at the Powerhouse Theatre in Brisbane, Australia.

Copyright ^© Ole Phat Stu on October 7, 2024 permalink Comments Email

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Annular eclipse

As seen from Chile. I have only ever seen one annular eclipse, some of you may have never even seen one, so I am posting this here which was sent by a blogreader, Enjoy!"

Sent to Ole Phat Stu on October 4 , 2024 permalink Comments Email

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Dinos at the Mall

After seeing the Dinos at the airport I went to the shopping mall on saturday, to see the dinos in the mall, shown below. Outside, in the parking lot, is an Apatosaurus, dating from 157 to 145 million years BC, it is a herbivore weighing 30 tons and being 21 meters long. Remains found in north America.

In contrast, a Carnotaurus, lived 70 million years ago in south America, carniverous, 9 meters long and weighed 2 tons.

This kentosaurus baby lived in east Africa 150 million years ago, weighed 0.5 tons and was 5 meters long, herbiverous.

The Deinonychus lived 120 million years ago on north America, weighed only 70 lbs and was 3.5 meters long. Carniverous.

Also, a Tyrannosaurus Rex for the movie fans . . .

And for the kids (and SWMBO) the head of a T Rex that you could crawl inside and have your photo taken as it was "eating you" ;-)

Comments(1)
Billions of Versions... wrote " The Carnotaurus looks like a Star Wars character." Missing the girl in the bikini though :-(

Copyright ^© Ole Phat Stu on October 1 , 2024 permalink Comments Email

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